Nimbus Child I: Games of War

Chapter 5

Sonne shuffled with her papers. She liked to have them when presenting her results, but they were made from nanomaterial and would be absorbed afterwards to not risk information getting out.

"Thanks to the reports you all submitted on your encounters – including the data of your union cores – we were able to analyze the phenomenon commonly known as "Disturbance"."

Some of the accumulated ships rolled their eyes at the uncreative name.

"Do not roll your eyes at me, some people proposed "Fleet of Mist". Back to the topic at hand: since the mass produced AIs – only "AI" in the following – are copies of you all, it currently seems that they were trained on battles you encountered.

That is relatively recent development, as the AI was formerly running on basic battle routines and depended on flagship input", Sonne looked at the different nations' flagships at that, then continued.

"The research apartment therefore concludes that Subject X, the existence that overtook the AI, has started feeding them the previously mentioned combat data. Whether the resulting "reenactments" are on purpose or an accidental cause of this cannot be said, yet."

Someone in the crowd put up a hand.

"Yes?"

"Does that mean they'll be on our level soon?", the voice, belonging to Umikaze, sounded worried.

She probably wasn't the only one with such a worry, but merely the first who spoke up.

"'Soon' is a relative amount of time", the research ship answered, "but tactic wise they will reach it one day, yes."

That led to murmuring, the rising sound level stopped only by a certain so-called Prince of the High North's voice: "We thought they would one day anyway. I'm more interested in the feeling unwell thing – what's with that?"

Sonne looked at Scharnhorst, the battleship leaning against a wall to the side: "What humans call a "bad gut feeling". Lots of you have encountered that before, most often before sinking. As such, your processor has logged this feeling with similar weather and fleet structure. You might experience a sense of déjà vu."

"Miss Sonne?", came another voice from the crowd.

"Yes, Italia?"

"Do they appear in similar fleet structures because of the combat data? Do they know which ships we are sortying?" Italia's voice was soft, but it carried heavy implications.

If they knew what ships were being deployed, then they had intel.

Oki, who was sitting beside Shinano, with Kii on her other side and in clear view of Kongō, shifted uncomfortably: Of course they have intel. We are up against the world!

And what opponent if not the very world itself would know exactly what was happening?

She snapped around when she felt a piercing gaze on her.

The gaze had felt as if someone, or something, had stared right into her soul, as if watching a bug and thinking about squashing it. There was nothing.

Shaken, Oki looked around the room, trying not to move her head too much, but there was truly nothing and no one.

No shadow creature, no masks, no cherry red wisps of hair, no ghost fire and no haunting sounds of wind chimes, either luring or repelling.

Just... nothing.

Dangerously nothing.

She didn't want it to be God or any of her vassals, but if that hadn't been her, then what...?

"Are you alright?", Shinano asked her youngest sister in a whisper.

Oki jumped, then did her best to smile at her: "Y-yeah! I just thought I heard something."

Shinano's brows furrowed.

"I just misheard! I'm OK, nee-chan!"

That didn't elevate her worries fully, but the supercarrier – improved when being reborn so that she now was an actually functional carrier worthy of the title – leaned back in her chair again.

Sonne answered Italia's question after some other muttering had quieted down as well: "The AI's fleet structure is most likely taken from the data, yes", that's what she had been trying to say since the beginning, "However, we don't have enough input yet to single out simple coincidence."

The battleship nodded: "Thank you, Miss Sonne."

She nodded, then looked at the crowd: "Any other questions?", no one announced themselves, "excellent. I'll upload the information to the Joint Tactical Network. That'll be all", Sonne packed her things and walked off, announcing the official end and breaking the social spell.

Movement came into the accumulated people as they stood up, stretched and began walking away.

Oki was lacking behind her sisters, wanting to talk to Kongō but not finding her.

"I am here."

Twirling around and coming face-to-face with a certain someone's dark clothing: "Kongō-sama!"

Kongō smiled down at her, silver hair falling over her shoulders, covering the crystal-shaped earrings that marked her as flagship in addition to the two-faced flag hanging around her arms: "You seemed to be searching for me?"

"I was!", Oki beamed, then switched to a more troubled expression, "can we.. can we talk about something, please?"

"Of course, little one, what is it?"

"Uhm...", she looked at Bismarck and co behind the flagship, troubled, then back into Kongō's eyes.

Understanding instantly, Kongō turned to her colleagues: "I shall rejoin you later."

"Sure?", Tirpitz asked, to which the silver haired ship nodded.

Bismarck began pushing Tirpitz away since she was obviously very interested in listening in: "Alright. If you need anything, just call."

"I shall."

The two watched the others leave, then Oki clutched her dress in distress and looked up at Kongō, eyes beginning to get teary: "I can't contact God at all!" I've tried everything, but she won't answer me!", she hid her face in her hands, "I... what should I do now, Kongō-sama?"

Kongō kneeled down to be at the child's height: "Have you tried praying too?"

Oki sobbed and didn't look at the other: "Praying...?"

"Yes, have you tried praying as well? Since she is a god, mayhaps that would work?"

The superbattleship was obviously trying to get her tears under control, didn't succeed and so could only shake her head.

Being made aware of the fact that she had missed what was probably the most obvious solution to calling for a god didn't really help her current state. In fact, a new series of sobs wrecked through her.

Delicate and yet powerful hands touched the back of Oki's head and back, pressing her softly against a dark chest as Kongō fully enveloped the little ship in her arms and rested her head on that of Oki: "If we focus too hard on a problem, the most obvious solutions sometimes elude us."

Kongō's voice was soft, like that of a mother trying to calm her child, hand brushing through her hair.

"R-really?", a hiccup, "even you?"

"Mhm, even me", her eyes narrowed, "when we realize such a solution, we sometimes wonder why we had not seen it sooner – and sometimes even why we hesitate on it even now."

Oki's little hands clutched Kongō's long haori: "Is there something like that for you too?"

No.

"Yes", Kongō chuckled.

Hesitation is useless.

"Everyone has something like that, I assure you. Try praying to our god, mayhaps she will hear and answer your plea."

The head pressed against the fast battleship's chest nodded: "Okay."